


The Literary Mack the Knife

by kurtoons



Category: Mack the Knife (1989)
Genre: American Literature, Filk, Gen, Sharks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-14
Updated: 2016-09-14
Packaged: 2018-08-14 23:40:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 244
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8033509
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kurtoons/pseuds/kurtoons
Summary: A musical tribute to some of the great authors of American Literature, sung to the tune of "Mack the Knife"





	The Literary Mack the Knife

**Author's Note:**

> This one does not exactly fit the usual categories.
> 
> Some years ago I heard a filk parody based on the song "Mack the Knife" from Kurt Weill's "Threepenny Opera" and it gave me the idea of writing one in which Mack makes his bloody way through the corpus of American Literature. (Well, one of the verses is about an English author, but I liked it too much to leave it out.)
> 
> Perhaps someday I'll add a few more verses to cover some of the classics I omitted.
> 
> Try to imagine it sung by Louis Armstrong.

(sung to the tune of "Mack the Knife")

Oh the shark has  
Pretty teeth, Dear;  
And he shows those  
Pearly whites;  
You won’t find him  
Read a book, Dear,  
But you might see  
Mack the Knife.

When the shark bites  
With his teeth, Dear,  
Scarlet billows  
‘Gin to spread.  
Mack is very  
Literary;  
You might say that  
He’s well-read

Once upon a  
Midnight dreary,  
Weak and weary  
Pondered I;  
Is that tapping  
Just a raven,  
Or is Macheath  
Stopping by?

It was brillig  
Slythy toves did  
Gyre and gimbal  
In the wabe;  
Vorpal Mack went  
Snicker-snack, Dear;  
Jabberwock lay  
There outgabe.

Mistress Em’ly  
Belle of Amherst  
Once sat writing  
Over tea;  
“Since I could not  
Stop for Death, Dear,  
Mack, he kindly  
Stopped for me.”

By the shores of  
Gitche Gumee  
Hiawatha  
Used to go;  
Now Nokomis  
Sits there weeping;  
Mack please say it  
Isn’t so!

Captain Ahab,  
That fanatic,  
Sought to kill a  
Monster whale;  
But who really  
Sank the Pequod?  
Mack says “Call me  
Ishmael!”

Once an Old Man  
Caught a “Beeg Feesh”  
As he struggled  
‘Gainst the Sea;  
When the Sharks bit  
With their teeth, Dear,  
Mack said “Leave a  
Bite for me!”

Rev’rend Dimmsdale,  
Sinning Hester,  
Justice Pyncheon,  
Sweet Goodman Brown;  
Mister Hawthorne  
Set them up, Dear,  
It was Mack who  
Knocked ‘em down.

Our great authors  
Wrote us stories  
Full of sorrow  
Pain and strife;  
Don’t go napping  
While in Lit class,  
Or you might miss  
Mack the Knife!


End file.
